Wolcott is one of 13 Connecticut communities the state has identified as a COVID-19 hot spot.
Friday, the town hosted its third vaccine clinic in partnership with the Chesprocott Health District.
Mayor Tom Dunn said they’ve been working hard in Wolcott to keep folks safe and get people vaccinated, despite the COVID-19 positivity rate data released at Governor Ned Lamont’s news conference Thursday.
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The state says they’ll be sending more vaccine resources to these impacted areas, many of which, unlike Wolcott, are in the Naugatuck Valley.
Dunn said he will gladly take the help.
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“It takes a lot just to do one clinic and we only have 150 today getting it. Absolutely, if we can get more help down here, we can get more people," said Dunn.
He and the health district said there's no one place to pinpoint an uptick in cases. The positive cases are widespread.
"The numbers are up. It’s scattered all over, so we can't really isolate it to one area where we need to shut something down," said Dunn.
“It’s spread out through the community, so everyone just has to be mindful. I know that we want to get back to normal, but we still need to take care of ourselves,” said Kathryn Glendon, public health specialist with Chesprocott Health District.
On Friday, health district members also vaccinated those stuck at their homes.
Dunn said the increase in COVID-19 cases isn't impacting the elderly population, but rather younger age groups.
As more and more folks in older age groups are fully vaccinated, COVID-19 cases are trending younger.
In southeastern Connecticut, Ledge Light Health District said while seeing a moderate decrease in cases, their contact tracers are reporting more clusters associated with daycares, schools, workplaces, social gatherings and sporting events.
“While it may seem like things are slowing down, COVID is still out there in our communities,” said the health district's Deputy Director Jen Muggio.
“I do think vaccination has a lot to do with that,” said Dr. Tom Murray, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.
While kids tend to rebound better from the virus, he said Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital has seen a change, too.
“A couple of weeks ago did have a significant bump in the number of children hospitalized and we have noticed that the kids who are being hospitalized are a little bit sicker than they seem to have been a couple of months ago,” said Murray.
Experts aren’t positive why this is the case. They say potentially a new variant is to blame.
In the meantime, they tell us the quickest route to returning to normal is by getting vaccinated. And, we can’t stop wearing masks and social distancing, too.
